Sous Vide

Sous-vide (French for "under vacuum") is a method of cooking in which food is sealed in airtight plastic bag then placed in a water bath for longer than normal cooking time, 96 hours or more, in some case, at an exact temperature much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 55 °C (131 °F) to 60 °C (140 °F) for meat and higher for vegetables. This is so the items cook evenly, ensuring that the inside is properly cooked without overcooking the outside, and retain moisture.

in 1799, Sir Benjamin Thompson first came up with this method of cook, he used air as a heat transfer method.  it was later re discovered in the 1960s by american and french engineers and was used as a food preservation method.  

The invention of the vacuum is also quite amazing.  Once a food item is vacuum sealed it can last longer on the shelf or in the refrigerator because all the oxygen is removed, which is a major component in food oxidizing.

The sous vide method was adopted by Georges Pralus in 1974.  He found that when he used this method to cook foie gras it would keep its original appearance and did not lose any amount of fat and had a better texture.

One limitation of sous vide cooking is the fact that it cannot have any kind of maillard reaction.  Although some chefs will cook a something sous vide and then finish on the grill on high heat for that browning crust.
  
Some chefs might see this method of cooking as a cheat, and in some cases they are right.  A true chef should know all the classic ways of cooking before tampering with the sous vide method.

Paleo Diet

I chose to partake in a Paleo Diet this week.  Paleo is a diet based on foods that our ancient ancestors might have eaten.  Basically consisting of more protein and meat fiber, and less carbohydrates.

A small list of things to eat and not to eat are

Ok foods.

• Grass-produced meats
• Fish/seafood
• Fresh fruits and veggies
• Eggs
• Nuts and seeds
• Healthful oils (Olive, walnut, flax seed, macadamia, avocado, coconut)

Not ok foods.

• Cereal grains
• Legumes (including peanuts)
• Dairy
• Refined sugar
• Potatoes
• Processed foods
• Salt
• Refined vegetable oils

An example of a full day meal might be,
Breakfast: an omelette with olive oil,  fresh fruit and tea
Lunch: a salad with seared tuna or sliced beef tenderloin with olive oil and lemon dressing.
Dinner: grilled turkey with broccoli, fresh fruit with berries and raisins
Snack: fruits and dried fruits or nuts and seeds.

My results through out the week were quite similar to my regular diet.  The only thing is I normally eat potatoes, bread and grain products because I love them.  That was the hardest part, potatoes might be one of my favorite things to eat.  I did cheat and have some mashed potatoes one night.

I was fortunate enough to have a lot of grass fed beef from my butcher shop so most of my meals consisted of beef steaks, tenderloin mostly.

A recipe I made for dinner one night was beef tenderloin with a pesto sauce and salad with avocados and sunflower seeds.

I personally would not continue this diet because there were a lot of foods I enjoy eating on a regular basis but were against the diet restrictions.  But anyone involved in the Paleo diet I would suggest just try to be creative.  A lot of fruit juices make excellent sauces or dressings for salads.  Also there are a lot of other meats to choose from that can make your meal more interesting such as kangaroo, bison, elk and other nutritious game meats.

Overall it is an interesting diet, I didn't notice a change in my energy level or mood or anything.  I would suggest if anyone needs or wants to diet, they should just choose a healthy balance or food everyday as well as some exercise to have a balanced life syle.

Domenic’s Fish Market

Domenic’s Fish Market has been located at the St Lawrence Market since 1967. It was originally owned by an Italian family, but than purchase by the Kim family in 1992. Son, and now owner, Harry began working in his family’s business in 2004 and renovations were made in 2006.  With newly lit counters and big displays for all the seafood,  it is a very appealing environment to shop at.

They work closely with ocean wise and local Ontario producers to get the highest quality seafood possible. They receive at least two shipments of fresh seafood everyday.  All the salmon they have come from Ontario farms except for the Irish salmon. They offer a variety of fresh fish such as fresh tuna, trout, whitefish, halibut, snapper, Arctic char, cod and of course salmon.

They also have a large selection of fresh shell fish such as shrimp of all sizes, clams, oysters,  muscles and my all time favourite sea urchant.

These are from Boston 

Overall it was a very good experience visiting and talking to Harry.   He's a passionate man who loves what he does and it reflects in his product.

Porchetta di testa

I have decided to make porchetta di testa with my lovely wild boar head.

Porchetta history goes back to ancient Roman times and was an original dish of Latium.  
http://www.marcadoc.com/porchetta-trevigiana/

Modern porchetta is made with a pork belly wrapped around a loin with garlic,  rosemary, sage, fennel, orange or lemon and salt and pepper.

The recipe I am doing is kind of the same method,  just different parts.

I saw this recipe on you tube with Chris Constantino demonstrating how to deboned a pig head and he has a brief speech about how to make porchetta di testa.   So I took that method and recipe and followed it as much as I could.   The recipe asks for you to vacuum seal the meat and sous vide it for about 8 hours at 200 degrees Celsius.   I do not have a vacuum pack machine at home nor do I have a sous vide machine.  So I decided to just put it in the oven.
https://youtu.be/nByH6yPWYj8

First step is to clean the head.   There are little hairs and dirt still all over so simply giving the head a good shave and wash will do it,  some people use a blow torch as well,  but I didn't have one.

Before

After

Next step is to debone the whole boar head.   I followed the cheek bones,  all the way to the back of the head and just began to simply cut on the bone trying to collect as much of that beautiful meat as I could.

I was really surprised how much meat was in the head.  There is a lot!

After the head was deboned I took the head and roasted it and made stock with it with just a simple mire post.   I left this simmer for around 5 hours.

Next step is to season the meat, I spread out all the meat and added salt pepper, crushed garlic, rosemary and some lemon zest.  After it sat for about an hour I rolled it up like a roulade.

I rolled and tied as tight and even as I could.  In order to make sure the whole thing wraps evenly I cut some of the jowl and placed it in different positions same with some of the cheek.

After tied I heated the oven to 450F and wrapped the porchetta with about 9 layers of foil to keep is as tight as possible.  Then placing it in the oven for 15 minutes then I lowered the heat to 200 and cooked it for about 5 hours,  basically a confit style of cooking.

After cooked,  let the meat cool in a fridge for a day or two to let all the fat and natural gelatin set.   Once set now it is time to slice thin and serve.   Typically served cold

To get a little feed back I brought it to my classmates to try and was quite surprised by the outcome.   I thought most people wouldn't like the texture because it is soft,  meaty at the cheek parts,  fatty around the jowls and a bit chewy around the skin.   Most people were scared of just the fact it is a boar's face.   Once everyone tasted it, a lot of people enjoyed the flavour and textures,  some even took seconds and thirds.

Overall I was extremely happy with the overall product.   I will deffinantly make it again,  next time I would like to add some kind of crunchy texture to it.      

Head

I was at work the other day and realized we had whole wild boar.   I brought the head home to see what I could do with it.

Wild boar is a very tasty animal,  has a more porky,  game kind if flavour.   It is quite extordinary.  This wild boar comes from the Ottawa area. 

There are many recipes utilizing a hog head.   There is a lot of natural gelatin in the head which can be set into a terrine or pate. 

There are also alot of different parts to the head.   The cheeks have amazing flavour and so does the jowl.   The ears can also be used. 

I am still uncertain what type of dish I will be making with it but I know I will be using the whole head,  even the left over bones will be used in a stock

chicken noodle soup

This is a chicken noodle soup I've been making for some time.  I don't really have a recipe, it usually changes with what I have.

I'm making an intense chicken broth, a double broth I guess.  I have a frozen stock from a couple weeks ago and I intend to intensify the flavour. 

I also have a lot of chicken thighs I have de-boned and I'm using the bones for stock

I took the bones and seared them along with the mirepoix (onion, celery and carrot), notice the lack of carrot because carrot can make the stock very sweet and mask the essence of the chicken.

After browning I added the old stock I made as well as a little bit of water to cover all the bones and vegetables and a spice bag with thyme, bay leaf and white pepper corns.

I bring the stock to a boil than let it simmer for about 2 hours.  While it simmers I will prepare my chicken.  I take the de-boned chicken thighs and put them in an oven at 400 for about 30-40 minutes to get them as crunchy as I can.

I also make some soba noodles for the soup.  Just add to boiling water for about 5 minutes then shock with ice water.

Once the chicken stock is done strain with a cheese cloth to remove all impurities.

once strained it will be a darker stock, due to the searing of the bones and vegetables.  Now season to taste with salt.

Now just assemble the plate.

Add the noodles to a bowl and cut the chicken into strips than add seasoned soup.

The flavour should be a symphony of chicken.  Crisp crunch from the chicken thigh, chewy soft noodles and an intense chicken flavour from the broth.

My chicken noodle soup

Cold smoke

I've decided to try to "macgyver" a cold smoker with my bbq.  First I need to something to smoke.  I chose to use salmon because cold smoked salmon is absolutely delicious.   I've been using a recipe for gravlax I found by Julia Child for a long time now so I've decided to do a little twist on that.  

http://www.food.com/recipe/julia-childs-traditional-gravlax-119184

Gravlax is quite easy to make.  It's a dry curing process with basically just salt,  sugar and some time.

1 lb salmon fillet,  skin on
1tbsp kosher salt
2tbsp white sugar or brown(basically two parts sugar one part salt) 
1 tsp of mustard powder
1 oz vodka
Fresh dill
Black pepper

Rinse the fish,  make sure all the pin bones are taken out.  Be sure to use a baking pan big and deep enough for the fish, the salt will drain out extra liquid.  Mix the salt and sugar and mustard together with a little black pepper.   Add a small layer of the mixture to the salmon lightly covering the whole fish,  including the skin.  Then add dill,  be sure to cover the fish completely with dill,  then add the rest of the salt, sugar mixture.  And finally add the vodka,  be sure to rub everything into the fish lightly.  Then you want to weigh it down slightly, use a sheet pan with a couple canned goods on top, then refrigerate for about 2 days.   After one day remove weights and taste and flip the fish. There will be a liquid on the bottom of the pan,  do not dump it out.  Cover the fish and refrigerate for another day.   Keep in mind the curing process is completely up to your taste.  After one day if you think its too salty take it out maybe add more sugar,  if not let it cure longer.

After the gravlax is just about done curing, about 3 days,  remove from fridge and rinse the salt and sugar mixture off and dry with paper towel

Right now this is pretty much ready to eat,  but we want to add smoke don't we?  I have set up a hot smoking method in my bbq with indirect heat,  but I don't want to hot smoke it. Thankfully I live in Canada and it is about - 15 outside and to cold smoke means smoking at about 22 degrees Celsius or lower.  I need to control the heat in a way that it doesn't cook the fish but adds that beautiful smoke flavour. So I put snow in the bbq.  In a few cake tins I added snow to try to keep the temperature in the bbq as low as possible 

First you need wood pouches in order to smoke.  So I added apple wood chips in some water and soaked it for about 10 min and using tin foil as the pouch add a small handful of wet and dry wood chips.   I also added left over dill just for some flavour.  

Second I removed one grate from the bbq and add the wood pouches directly on the fire so begin smoking, the fish will go on the side away from the heat 

As the pouches begin to smoke the heat will be rising  

So this is where the snow comes in.  I basically just add as much snow as I can to bring the heat down 

I moved one of the pouches directly under the fish for a more intense smoke. 

For me this process took about an hour and a half constantly changing the wood pouches and the snow, because it would melt.  Once and a while, I tasting the salmon until it achieved the flavour I was looking for. 

After the fish is consumed you will be left with a salty fish skin,  don't throw that out.  If you pan fry it until golden and crispy it's a wonderful treat as well